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Weekly Drabble Challenge 6 - Results!

This weeks topic is OWLS, NEWTS and EXAMS. Jo had a bit of fun writing some of the Examination scenes for their OWLS and she must have enjoyed it alot because she even invented WOMBATS for us HP-obsessed muggles as well So this can be humorous, serious, whatever you want.

Points will be awarded to winners as usual, 15, 10 and 5 respectively. And please use the following form for submissions.

Author:
House:
Title:
Warnings:
Words:

I'll close the Halloween one in a few hours so get those last minute entries in.

"I can do this, I can do this", I thought as I walked into the Great Hall. My mouth dropped. "Okay, maybe I can't do this." "Weasley", McGonnagal said sternly, "You can go over to professor MarshBanks, she's free", she said, pointing to an old witch. Smirking, I quietly went over to her. She wasn't a pretty nice lady, but she was better than Tofty, Harry's person.

It wasn't as bad as I though actually. First, she asked me a whole bunch of questions. After the 55th question she let me do magic. Finally! First I was supposed to turn a animal into a cup. Easy, "Feraverto!" Then I was supposed to make a animal turn into a pillow. But when Marshbanks tried it out, she cried out in pain. Guess what, the spicked coloured tail was still there. At least I wasn't Hannah Abbot though. Long story, back to mine.

Then I messed up on other spells, but finally a got a question right. Do a levitating charm. If I could do it in my first year, I could do it now. But after that, the exam was cancelled for 10 minutes because of Hannah.

“Sirius Black if you don’t get away from me, I’m going to curse you into oblivion!” shouted Lily Evans.

“Merlin, they all get so edgy around exam time,” muttered Sirius sitting down at the fireplace with James.

The two sat by the fire in whispers as their fellow students sat all around them studying for their upcoming exams. Sirius and James seemed unperturbed by the fact that they had not yet opened a book, and their NEWTs started in only two days.

Finally, after half an hour of deep conversation, and planning James stood with a mischievous grin. He slowly took two steps forward towards the undisturbed studiers.

“James Potter if you take one step closer you’re going to wish you were never born!” hissed Lily Evans from her seat three feet away from James.

With a flick of his wand the room went white, including Lily’s robes whose white color seemed to glow. Her pencil was transformed into a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and James’s own school robes, had transformed into dress robes.

Lily’s scowl turned into a badly concealed smile as James knelt down in front of her.

“Lily Evans will you marry me?” whispered James.

“Not today dear, ask me again later, I’m studying,” Lily bent down and kissed her boyfriend on the lips before returning to her notes.

Hermione perched herself nervously on the edge of her seat. She had studied for hours, there was no way she could fail these tests. Every textbook memorized practically word for word, every wand movement she could do in her sleep, every potion ingredient could be easily identified. Then why was she so nervous?

She stuck in end of her quill into her mouth as she glimpsed at the students around her. One girl was as pale as Nearly Headless Nick, another was shaking so much her chair rattled against the stone floor. Hermione wasn’t the only one with pre-exam jitters. They only affected your whole life, after all.

Finally the tests were distributed, and time started. Hermione peered at the first question and steadied her quill to begin.

“What skill allows wizards to transform into an animal?” Hermione smiled and scribbled a long, detailed answer that included the fact that it is illegal to be an unregistered animungus. She knew all too well what can happen when some one abuses this magical attribute.

“What creature can help revive those who have been petrified?” She shuddered a bit as she remembered the last few moments before being petrified herself. And she also remembered the creature she’d helped replant in herbology that revitalized her. She wrote an in-depth paragraph about mandrakes.

“What potion, if drank, allows you to take on the physical appearance of another human?” Hermione had to shake her head at the word human. It works if you use cat hair as well. Yet another well-informed answer went down on the page.

Hermione laughed to herself. I wouldn’t have stressed out so much if I new this was going to be a practical exam!

It wasn’t working. Alright, Hermione, what do we do when we’re stressed? We simply dissect it into something smaller, less scary, she thought to herself. NEWTS, is a pretty big, impressive word, isn’t it?

Yes, it is, she answered herself. But N isn’t so big, is it? No, not at all, she decided. It’s just a letter. Only the fourteenth letter of the alphabet, right? Yes. And if you times fourteen by two and subtracted seven, it equaled her lucky number, twenty-one. A bit of a stretch, perhaps, but there was no denying the facts. Fourteen times two minus seven is twenty-one. See? I’m a smart witch, she thought smugly.

Onto E, she thought, determined. Alright…E. E is for Exceeds Expectations, right? It was a sign! She would succeed! It was foolproof!

See, this isn’t so bad, Hermione thought cheerily to herself. Now, onto W. W is for wonderful, right? And…and…she thought desperately to herself. It’s the twenty-third letter in the alphabet. Two plus three equals five. And five…well, never mind, she thought, dismissing it.

Alright, onto T…T is for terrific! Of course it’s also for terrible, but I won’t think about that, she thought. And T is the twentieth letter of the alphabet! Only one away from her lucky number!

Last letter! Hermione thought triumphantly. S…S is for superb! And splendid! And super! There was no possible way she could fail! Not the slightest chance, not the tiniest hint…nothing!

“Hey Hermione, are you studying for the test? Guess what I figured out, NEWTS equals Nasty Evil Worrisome Sordid exams!” Ron shouted excitedly across the room.

In the mind of Draco Malfoy, there was nothing as peaceful as studying. Every Christmas, he would settle into his dark room and tell his parents that he had an important exam coming up right after the holidays. This way, he got an excuse to be alone, to think about the things that weren’t imperative in his life. He spent the whole break studying the different effects of a werewolf’s bite, or the ingredients in the Polyjuice Potion, and just blessed the day studying was invented.

This year was especially important, since the NEWT’s were coming about, closer and closer. Although he was having no problem with any of his classes, he told Lucius that he needed to review many lessons, and that he simply wouldn’t have time to do any other thing. This gave him more time to exercise something that he hoped would be occurring more and more as time passed by: spending time away from his family.

He also had another incentive to study: he wanted to be the best. Doing well wasn’t going to be good enough if there was someone ahead of him. Indeed, he wouldn’t be able to stand it if that Granger got ahead of him at something – nay, anything. The Golden Trio was always seen as the heroic group of the story, while he, Malfoy, was always the malicious villain. He needed something to get back at them for all that time, and that something was getting not good, but the best, marks.

Drabble Time

Harry frowned. This was too hard for him to handle. Why did he even bother studying, when he was bound to fail…
When he told Ron and Hermione this, they just brushed it away with so called words of wisdom, like,
“It’s just exam stress. Just clear your mind for a few minutes, then your stress should go away, and you can continue.”
“Come off it mate, you know you’re gonna wing it.”
There was not much time. He would fail. He just knew it.

One week later, it was time. The NEWTs were here. What was Harry to do? Could he run away, and not take the exams? But he was in the Hall; there was no way that he could get out.
“Harry Potter”
It was the dreaded moment. The first exam, Transfiguration was up, and his name was called. Harry got up, and plodded slowly out of the room, into the test.

Challenge 6 entry

“1. Please describe, in your own words, the difference between a regular and corporeal Patronus”

Luna began filling in her answer. It was an automatic gesture. She had studied hard and didn't even have to think about her answer, which was good as it was the only blessing she had right now.

She kept remembering the excitement when her coin had begun to burn. She had missed having friends. She had even been excited when it turned out that there would be a fight. But the result of that fight, the death of Professor Dumbledore, still weighed heavy on her heart.

She knew that what was really bothering her was guilt. She had been excited about having friends again and excited about the course of events that led to her having friends again. And that course of events had led to the death of a good man and perhaps the world's greatest wizard.

That's silly, she thought to herself. She knew that she wasn't responsible for his death, and she had no idea that they would lose someone in the fight to protect the school. Yet the guilt remained. It must be the work of a Wrackspurt. But Wrackspurt or not, the feeling didn't leave her.

As she looked down at her exam paper, she realized that the Wrackspurt had been doing more than making her feel guilty. On her exam she had written “I'm sorry” for a least half of the page.

“Excuse me,” Luna said.

“Yes, Ms. Lovegood?”

“Could I have another paper? There's seems to be a Wrackspurt in here and he made me mess up my paper.”

“Moony’s already awake,” Remus muttered from the next bed. “What are you two doing? You have to write your exam in six hours. Don’t you think you should get some sleep?”

James plopped down on his bed and patted him on the back. “Sleep is for the boring, mate. Are you coming or what, Padfoot?”

“Where are we going?” Sirius muttered, groggily.

“To help a friend,” James told him, mysteriously.

Sirius groaned, again, but his head emerged from under the blankets. He could never say no to one of James’ crazy ideas. That’s why they were such good friends.

“Want to come, Moony?” James asked.

“No, I would like to pass my exam tomorrow, therefore I am remaining in bed,” Remus muttered.

“Your loss, mate,” James muttered as he and Sirius left the dorm room.

Sirius followed James down the stairs and was astonished when his friend collapsed on a chair in front to the common room fireplace.

“You drug me out of bed to sit in the common room?” he complained.

“No, I drug you out of bed so Wormtail couldn’t hear our conversation,” James told him, in a much more serious tone. “We know that he is going to fail his exam tomorrow. He’s just not getting the material. He needs our help. So I swiped this from Snape’s bag. I heard him bragging about it to my brother.” Sirius held up a small flask.

“What is it?”

“Felix Felicis,” James told him. “Snape told Reg that he brewed it for Lucius Malfoy. It had something to do with Malfoy’s love life and your crazy cousin.”

“All of my cousins are crazy. Not that I don’t condone stealing from Snape, but what’s the point? How is that going to help Wormtail?”
“Felix Felicis, it’s liquid luck. If we give this to Wormtail tomorrow morning, he is sure to do well on his exam. It’s his only hope.”

“Wait, I remember Slughorn talking about that stuff. He said it was illegal to use it before exams. Wormtail could get expelled.”

“Only if we get caught. We just have to slip this into his morning pumpkin juice and no one will be the wiser. It’s his only hope. We can’t let him fail. He’s one of us.”

Sirius nodded. “I’m in.”

With that they went back to bed, feeling rather proud of themselves. After all, they would be helping a friend in need and they knew Peter would do the same for them.

A badly written answer could be the difference between an Exceeds Expectations and an Acceptable. Books were piled up on the table Hermione Granger was studying at and her eyelids were drooping. However, she refused to fall asleep. To fall asleep now would be something akin to a calamity.

She knew she should sleep, and tackle tomorrow’s exams with a fresh mind, but as soon as the notion of sleep crossed her mind, she started to panic.

Unbidden, the Defence Against the Dark Arts exam from third year crossed her mind. She had learnt that her worst fear was failure. This fear would keep her awake if she tried to sleep, so she double and triple checked facts in the tomes littering the table.

She should have done her NEWTs last year, but Hogwarts had been closed down, as a school could not possibly run with something like thirty pupils enrolled. Now the war was over, and the school had been reopened. And now Hermione Granger was facing exams.

There were times during the last year where she thought she was going to fail, that she would never be able to help Harry and their friends out of the various situations they had gotten into while Horcrux hunting. But they had not failed. They had succeeded. Voldemort was gone now.

Hermione had helped bring around the downfall of one of the most feared wizards of all time. Surely that should have been scarier than an exam.

Her eyes closed, and suddenly she felt very tired. Surely a short nap wouldn’t hurt…

~*~

She woke up, wondering where she was. She rubbed her eyes, then realised she had fallen asleep at her table, studying. In a panic, she looked at the clock on the wall in the Gryffindor common room.

She jumped up, instantly alert. She had a few minutes to get down to the Great Hall for her very first exam- Defence Against the Dark Arts theory. She ran down all the stairs she encountered two at a time, huffing and puffing her way to the examination room. She took her seat at her desk, feeling not at all relaxed by her sleep, but feeling rather nervous. There must have been something that she had forgotten to check up…she was going to fail for sure.

Nearly turning up late for the examination had not helped soothe her nerves. She heard the examiner call out that they were to start. Hermione clutched the quill that had been laid on her desk, dipped it into the supplied bottle of ink, turned over the examination paper and proceeded to answer the questions. Then a tiny thread of doubt crept into her mind. She neatly crossed out her previous answers, and proceeded to write down all the wrong ones.